dumbass

See also: dumb-ass and dumb ass

English

Alternative forms

• dumb-ass, dumb ass
• dumbarse (UK)

Etymology

dumb +‎ ass. It is likely that ¹ass (= donkey), not ²ass (= buttocks), was the original sense within this compound noun (solid compound or open compound), but neither sense is precluded, and many people today may uncritically parse the term in the latter way, even if it is misapprehensive. Apparent analogy with forms such as hard-ass and big-ass would naturally lend support to the second parsing. A similar synergy can be seen in the fact that the terms buttload and assload originated as literally meaning a cartload and the load transportable by a single donkey (respectively), but probably most English speakers today would assume that their derivation involves the buttocks.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdʌm.æs/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

dumbass (plural dumbasses)

1. (US, vulgar, slang) A stupid or foolish person.

   The dumbass walked off with my car keys and left me hers.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:fool

Derived terms

• dumbassery
• dumbassity

Translations

stupid or foolish person

• Azerbaijani: gicdıllaq (vulgar)
• Bikol Central: patal (bcl)
• Catalan: ninot (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 傻仔 (so⁴ zai²), 戇鳩／戆鸠 (ngong⁶ gau¹), 蠢才 (ceon² coi⁴)

  Mandarin: 蠢才 (zh) (chǔncái), 蠢驢／蠢驴 (zh) (chǔnlǘ), 傻屄 (zh) (shǎbī) (vulgar)

• Czech: blbec (cs) m
• Danish: dummerik c, dummernik c
• Finnish: tollo (fi), tyhmä (fi), molopää (fi) (vulgar)
• French: abruti (fr) m, crétin (fr) m, andouille (fr) f, tête de nœud (fr) f
• Galician: apirolado
• German: Blödmann (de) m, Trottel (de) m
• Jamaican Creole: half eediat
• Japanese: アホ (ja) (aho), 馬鹿 (ja) (baka)
• Portuguese: torpe (pt), tonto (pt) m, burro (pt) m, asno (pt) m, mula (pt) f
• Russian: тупи́ца (ru) m or f (tupíca), приду́рок (ru) m (pridúrok), деби́л (ru) m (debíl), долбоёб m (dolbojób) (vulgar), муда́к (ru) m (mudák) (vulgar), муди́ло (ru) n (mudílo) (vulgar), ебла́н (ru) m (jeblán) (vulgar), мудозво́н (ru) m (mudozvón) (vulgar)
• Spanish: torpe (es) m, tonto (es) m, tontón m, tarado (es) m, boludo (es) m, gilipollas (es) n, pendejo (es)
• Swedish: pucko (sv) n, träskalle (sv) c

Adjective

dumbass (comparative more dumbass or dumberass, superlative most dumbass or dumbestass)

1. (US, vulgar, slang) Stupid, foolish.

   That dumbass driver ruined my car!

   • 2015, Jason Reynolds, Brendan Kiely, All American Boys, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     I zipped my coat up to the neck, worried now that going to the march was more dumbass than I'd thought. It got closer—the only frigging thing in the road!—and I realized I was shaking. I couldn't move.

See also

• hard-ass